Carrie's Peace Corps Blog

Friday, November 27, 2009

It is now officially rainy season in North West Province. It has rained every day for the last few weeks, but still usually only an hour or so during the day and some more at night. This means that work as far as education has slowed down (kids are off of school in December) but picked up as far as gardening. My work lately has been really slow, but I am excited to help conduct another nursery school teacher training in a neighboring area in mid-December. It is a good time to do trainings since ideally the teachers will be ready to teach by the time term one rolls around in January.

I have also been fortunate in meeting lots of people from all walks of life recently. I have been working more with the Zambian Department of Fisheries because my host father is building a fish pond with the help of another PCV, I have also met game lodge owners, lumberjacks from Spain, and all sorts of other random characters. It keeps life interesting, that is for sure.

One interesting thing I have been able to do is go fishing with my host mother and brother, Dear. I spent the entire day speaking to them in Luvale, since their English is limited. We used a mosquito net (my host mother insisted it was an old one and that they have one on their bed) but other people were using spears (boys, with little success) or woven baskets. I even caught several fish with my bare hands! We ended up catching maybe 80 fish, the largest being about 3 inches long. My host mother was disappointed at the catch, but I thought it was a nice day anyway.

Monday, October 12, 2009

So Stevie wrote two songs for In Service Training, and she posted them on her blog, but I want to post them here as well. She is a genius.

Go SlowChorus[Go Slow, don’t move too fast Just enough to keep the kids coming to sweep the classGo slow, don’t move too fastNext term might see some teachin’ so sit back and relax]

Now let me tell you all a little taleOf life under the sun for one quite paleThe mission in front was impossibleTo make teachers willing not just capable

Chorus

At first I hoped to be just a fly on the wallBut soon there was nothing to see at allThe first week of term was for cleaning the classAnd all the complaints were just a pain in the assNo rural hardship so we fight for the causeAnd then with the what what, sports and natazThe strike was decided the only wayNo learning to do so pupils stayed at bay

Chorus

Yet I still have three months to fill with timeSo I thought I’d tell you about in this here rhymeWith the schools all deserted and emptyI found many other things temptingThere is the important job of entertainin’Always a hit- what’s that mazungu makin’I became master of the brazier cakeCause mufu birthday’s were serious to take

Chorus

Chasing after the DEBS took many a dayHappy to find a new one’s on the waySee our DEBS happened to be a big fat jerkAnd seemed to hate me just as much as my workNever turned down a single invitationResulting in hours of church and salvationI made friends with the small one block bomaOn days with power we cried HALLEJAH

Chorus

The strike finally ceased with 3 weeks to goHit the ground runnin’ on with the showMy ZIC’s quite a rockstar, she is one sassy ladyWe were bikin to schools in my zone dailyManaged to fit some TGM’s inDid lots of work with a program called SHNI am used when it comes to life village sideJust ok with selling my soul… for a free ride

Chorus

House décor included some paintingAnd when I get home there’ll be kitty waitingLet’s hope that the go slow is truly finishedOtherwise my to read list will be diminishedNot sure how much real teaching there will be to seeWhen all of these kids out runnin’ freeBut I’ll still be there tryin’ to fight the good fightOne step at a time, proving education’s a right

Chorus…just a bit of culture exchange

Southern CrossVerse 1Cast out on a shipset on land all a blazeunknown how life has come this wayeveryday set the course destination unsureand the patience of waiting and waiting, not knowing if it matters at all

Chorus

When the sun melts awayAnd one by one the stars appearThen I gaze at the Southern CrossAnd the world melts awayAll the worries and the doubtsAnd I know that this is right

Verse 2Some days start so strongendless movement forwardthis could be the real start of thingsyet somehow turn awayeverything falls apartand I'm sinking and spinning and tryingjust to keep floating at all

Chorus

When the sun melts awayAnd one by one the stars appearThen I gaze at the Southern CrossAnd the world melts awayAll the worries and the doubtsAnd I know that this is right

BridgeHow much can you change without taking what is thereAnd How much take you give without knowing if they careAnd How much can you take without loosing while you cameThere's value in unseen effortsThe beauty's in the choice of time

Verse 3All it takes is one dayone sweet moment of blissthen the shore somehow comes into viewon it goes spend your daysslowly gliding alongwithout seeing, or asking,not knowing how this became home at allWhen the sun melts awayAnd one by one the stars appearThen I gaze at the Southern CrossAnd the world melts awayAll the worries and the doubtsAnd I know that this here rightWhen the sun melts awayAnd one by one the stars appearThen I gaze at the Southern CrossAnd the world melts awayAll the worries and the doubtsAnd I know that this is right yesI know that this, this is right

Sunday, October 11, 2009

I am in Lusaka on my way to a music festival, and I have FREE internet! So let me update you all.

First of all the big news is that there is a new intake of fish farmers and health volunteers, so Mufumbwe has grown by 4 more volunteers. I have already biked to one of the sites, my new nearest neighbors which are about 27-30km from my house. They all seemed to be getting settled alright, and we are really excited to have new faces.

I have been working on my garden a lot, my fence is all put up and I am working on perma culture techniques, so I am learning as I go. I have already planted onions, marygolds, and hot peppers. When I get back to site I hope to plant oregano, cilantro, basil, rosemary (thanks Aunt Nancy!) carrots, lettuce, celery, green peppers, and tomatoes. I have never gardened before so if even one thing grows I will be really happy! I generally work on it between 5-7am because it has been really brutally hot out lately, and I have to fetch water from my borehole to water the plants.

Hot season is in full swing here. We did get our first rains a week ago, but since it has continued to be very very hot. Most locals get up around 4 or 5am and head to their fields, come back around 10am and do work around the house. Then work starts up again around 3pm when it starts to get a little cooler. The mornings are wonderfully cool, but it is difficult to get to sleep at night because it is so hot. The rains are supposed to start at the end of the month, which will be a welcome relief.

The library in my zone, thanks to the previous volunteer's hard work, just recieved over 4,000 books from America. So I have been busy busy going through them all, reminicing, and categorizing. We had to categorize, shelf, stamp, pocket, record, and label all the books, so I am sure I will be busy with that for quite awhile now.

The schools in my zone along with the Ministry of Education (MOE) have been rock stars this term. One school is building 2 teachers houses, and 2 new classroom blocks (one by the MOE and one community funded.) Another school just put a roof on their long standing roofless classroom blocks that was community built (imagine, 3 classrooms and two offices not being used because there is no roof,) they got two new teachers, which doubles their staff, which is a much needed addition. They had 200+ kids and only two teachers, one of which was the principal so he wasn't really supposed to teach. They are also getting another classroom block built by the MOE. So my area is really developing quickly. Let's hope the projects are followed through to fruition.

Otherwise I have studying Luvale, hanging out with friends, sewing, reading, napping, visiting schools, having meetings, and other things like that to keep busy. I might be starting two more nursery schools soon, but I am not sure if they are serious or not.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

I am back in Solwezi for a couple days for a resiliancy training and to welcome Lynn as our new PCVL (Peace Corps Volunteer Leader I think.) The big news is that a Shop Rite opened in Solwezi, which has pretty much revolutionized our lives here! I mean...cream cheese!?!?! Amazing!

I just had second site visit come to my place (unfortunately I missed Likumbi Lya Mize for it) and the new kids are a blast. We are almost doubling the amount of volunteers in North Western Province (we will be 27 total) and Mufumbwe will have TEN volunteers, which is absolute insanity for such a small district. So my new family includes Bob and Marie, Laura, Adam, and Ashley. We are all really excited to get to know them and the rest of the new people.

Otherwise I am still loving life in the village. I went to buy charcoal yesterday at the traditional healer's place and she started getting demon visions or something and ran around her compound yelling. It was definitely interesting after being around Americans for two weeks to be back in the village. I love it though, I got a very warm welcome from my family and my garden fence and toilet are FINISHED. Hurray!

Links I Like

Mailing Tips

-I need to carry anything about 2km by foot, then about 55km bycar, so please don't send anything awkwardly big or heavy.-Write "religious materials" or bible verses on packages-Make sure to write "air mail" so it isn't sent by boat...-Include a contents list (and keep photocopies/scans of letters) so I know if I got everything or if it is lost in the mail you didn't waste all that time on a letter that is never to be seen again-Never claim value of things sent...it will just make them more likely to be stolen-The magic limit is 4 pounds-Please Please Please bag or tape or protect anything that might be messy or might be ruined by getting wet (hey...it's the African mail system, it might sit in a puddle)